If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: In my opinion...

I'll admit I had formed an opinion before I posed this question and it is along the lines of what Acebird posted.

Beekeeping isn't full of many facts since there is a lot we don't know (a lot of 'variables" as people like to say). Maybe it gets used a lot because the majority of the time people are discussing mostly with opinions and personal experience?

Re: In my opinion...

For me, I'll sometimes offer one of my theories, that's worked, for me. But I know it's a theory not a fact even though I think it's probably correct, so I'll add, in my opinion.

Plus of course as already mentioned you are going to get attacked by somebody else anyway, so stating it as an opinion rather than a fact helps with that. AND, one persons fact may not be anothers. For example it's a "fact" that running a one deep brood box hive is best in one part of my country, But in most other areas it's a "fact" that running a double deep brood nest is best. Put two beekeepers together who don't understand the regional differences in location and you've got guys throwing "facts" at each other, opinions can be more harmony friendly.

Re: In my opinion...

Re: In my opinion...

I admit to using that quite a bit often because I hear lots of beginning beekeepers (to whom I'm often replying) whose hives have ongoing problems harken back to asking for advice from someone else and they say, "He told me to just do X." New beekeepers often believe that things they are told to do by more experienced beekeepers are stone cold rules and methods that will always 100% work. I want to dispel that belief at the very beginning of whatever I'm stating because that's rarely, if ever, the case.

Re: In my opinion...

Originally Posted by Maryland Beekeeper

IMHO this thread belongs in the Site feedback forum
Cheers,
Drew

Amen, ditto, mho too.

I use imo or imho or afaik (as far as I know) to establish that I don't consider myself the end all and be all of a particular discussion topic. The absence of any of those does not mean the converse is true.

Re: In my opinion...

I had this thought before I even saw this thread. Btu it fits very well.

Beekeeping is obviously in the dark about several things right now. Did you ever lay down in the back seat of a car and then try to guess where you where by the few things you could see flashing by through the window. Or find your way through your house in the complete dark? Even though you are very familiar with the house. suddenly everything seems to be slightly out of place.

It quickly takes on a characteristic of. " I think that chair is right about BAM!. Oh dang".

I think that beekeeping is alto like that right now. There is a whole lot that is in darkness. and many beekeepers are looking for those fleeting glimpses of just where we are and what is going on. It has been goign on for so long now and a clear picture is still not forming. that we are resorting to making up whole stories about just flashes of light.

I noticed that last year when I fed my bees on the 7th of may during a full moon with a temperature of 72 degrees and a forecast of rain that 2% more of my hives survived. IMO I have found the cure for Varroa. This is otherwise known as Paralysis of Analysis. You get so locked up in looking for the problem you become stagnant. The cure is that if you are having serious problems do something different. anything. it doesn't really matter what you change. it can't make you a worse beekeeper. The real danger is the beekeeper that has achieved good enough. and I think this afflicts nearly every beekeeper in existence. It's working good enough. I only average a 30% loss per year. I can live with that so don't mess with it.

And then you have the fertile ground for the In My Opinion discussions. And although they can erupt frequently. I believe the opinion based discussions may be the only way to really finding out the whole picture. because every one adds one more possible piece to the puzzle. If those that care enough to have formed an opinion don't find the answer. Who will? Those that don't give a diddly squat if there is a bee?

So I hope to see the IMO and it appears to me to keep coming in floods. It is the same thing as laying in the back seat. saying, I think we are getting close. I think I recognized that tree branch.